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The Pasadena Apartments

132-152 Crown Street Architect unknown 1928-1930

Typical of the era’s “Classic Six” apartment buildings, the Pasadena was designed to appeal to the emerging middle class moving to Brooklyn in large numbers, arriving via new subway lines. Its Spanish/Mediterranean Revival design is characteristic of the era’s penchant for Tudor, Medieval and Spanish Revival suburban homes, which was echoed in apartment house styles in the urban environment. These apartment buildings offered tenants such amenities as impressive marble lobbies, large apartments with multiple bedrooms, sunken living rooms and a maid’s room and bath off the kitchen. In addition, many of these buildings were given fancy names to evoke a certain stature and identity; in this case, the distant and beautiful city of Pasadena. It is possible that Pasadena’s allure was also derived from its proximity to Hollywood, which was, at the time, reaching its peak of glamour and influence across the United States. The building is accessed through a graceful open courtyard in the front, allowing residents and visitors a grand entrance and reinforcing the building’s persona to passersby.